Annotation of wikisrc/guide/upgrading.mdwn, revision 1.2

1.1 jdf 1: # Upgrading NetBSD
2:
3: This chapter describes the binary upgrade of a NetBSD system. There are a
4: variety of alternatives to perform this procedure, and the following sections
5: will guide you through them.
6:
7: ## Using sysinst
8:
9: ### Overview
10:
11: To do the upgrade, you must have some form of bootable media (CD-ROM, USB
12: drive, network, etc.) available and at least the base and kern distribution
13: sets. Since files already installed on the system are overwritten in place,
14: you only need additional free space for files which weren't previously
15: installed or to account for growth of the sets between releases. Usually this
16: is not more than a few megabytes.
17:
18: ### Note
19:
20: Since upgrading involves replacing the kernel, boot blocks, and most of the
21: system binaries, it has the potential to cause data loss. Before beginning,
22: you are strongly advised to back up any important data on the NetBSD partition
23: or on any other partitions on your disk, most importantly `/etc`.
24:
25: The upgrade procedure is similar to an installation, but without the hard disk
26: partitioning. sysinst will attempt to merge the settings stored in your `/etc`
27: directory with the new version of NetBSD. Also, file systems are checked
28: before unpacking the sets. Fetching the binary sets is done in the same manner
29: as in the installation procedure.
30:
31: ### The INSTALL document
32:
33: Before doing an upgrade it is essential to read the release information and
34: upgrading notes in one of the `INSTALL` files: this is the official
35: description of the upgrade procedure, with platform specific information and
36: important details. It can be found in the root directory of the NetBSD release
37: (on the install CD or on the FTP server).
38:
39: It is advisable to print the INSTALL document out. It is available in four
40: formats: `.txt`, `.ps`, `.more`, and `.html`.
41:
42: ### Performing the upgrade
43:
44: The following section provides an overview of the binary upgrade process. Most
45: of the following sysinst dialogs are similar to those of the installation
46: process. More verbose descriptions and explanations of the dialogs are
47: available in [[Example installation|guide/exinst]].
48:
49: After selecting the installation language and the keyboard type, the main menu
50: appears. Choosing option `b: Upgrade NetBSD on a hard disk` will start the the
51: upgrade process.
52:
1.2 ! jdf 53: ![Starting the upgrade](/guide/images/upgrading_main.png)
! 54:
! 55: **Starting the upgrade*
1.1 jdf 56:
57: This dialog will request permission to continue with the upgrade. At this point
58: nothing has been changed yet and the upgrade can still be cancelled. This is a
59: good time to ask yourself whether you have made a backup, and if you know for
60: certain that you will be able to restore from it.
61:
1.2 ! jdf 62: ![Continuing the upgrade](/guide/images/upgrading_confirm.png)
! 63:
! 64: **Continuing the upgrade**
1.1 jdf 65:
66: After choosing to continue with `Yes`, the next dialog will ask you to specify
67: the hard disk with the NetBSD system that shall be upgraded. If more than one
68: disk is available a list of the disks will be displayed.
69:
1.2 ! jdf 70: ![Choosing the hard drive](/guide/images/upgrading_select-disc.png)
! 71:
! 72: **Choosing the hard drive**
1.1 jdf 73:
74: The system used for the example has only one hard disk available: `wd0`.
75:
76: The following dialog provides a menu to choose the installation type. The
77: choices are `Full installation`, `Minimal installation`, or `Custom
78: installation`.
79:
1.2 ! jdf 80: ![Choosing the distribution filesets](/guide/images/install_install-type.png)
! 81:
! 82: **Choosing the distribution filesets**
1.1 jdf 83:
84: At this point, sysinst will perform a check of the file system to ensure its
85: integrity.
86:
1.2 ! jdf 87: ![File system check](/guide/images/upgrading_fsck.png)
! 88:
! 89: **File system check**
1.1 jdf 90:
91: The next step is to choose which type of bootblocks to install.
92:
1.2 ! jdf 93: ![Choosing bootblocks](/guide/images/install_bootblocks.png)
! 94:
! 95: **Choosing bootblicks**
1.1 jdf 96:
97: The next dialog will ask how much information should be displayed during the
98: extraction of the distribution sets.
99:
1.2 ! jdf 100: ![Upgrade process - verbosity level](/guide/images/install_verbosity.png)
! 101:
! 102: **Upgrade process - verbosity level**
1.1 jdf 103:
104: The following dialog asks for the install method of choice and provides a list
105: of possible options. The install medium contains the new NetBSD distribution
106: sets. You will be prompted for different information depending on which option
107: you choose. For example, a CD-ROM or DVD install requires you to specify which
108: device to use and which directory the sets are in, while an FTP install
109: requires you to configure your network and specify the hostname of an FTP
110: server. More details can be found in
111: [[Choosing the installation media|guide/exinst#choosing_the_installation_media]].
112:
1.2 ! jdf 113: ![Install medium](/guide/images/install_medium.png)
! 114:
! 115: **Install medium**
1.1 jdf 116:
117: sysinst will now unpack the distribution sets, replacing your old binaries.
118: After unpacking these sets, it runs the postinstall script to clean up various
119: things. If no problems occur, you are done. If postinstall produces errors, you
120: will have to manually resolve the issues it brings up. See postinstall's man
121: page for more information. You should also read the remarks in `INSTALL` about
122: upgrading, as specific compatibility issues are documented there.
123:
1.2 ! jdf 124: ![Upgrade complete](/guide/images/upgrading_complete.png)
! 125:
! 126: **Upgrade complete**
1.1 jdf 127:
128: When you are back at the main menu, remove the boot medium (if applicable) and
129: reboot. Have fun with your new version of NetBSD!
130:
131: ## Using sysupgrade
132:
133: The sysupgrade utility (currently found in `pkgsrc/sysutils/sysupgrade`) allows
134: you to upgrade a running system to a newer binary release.
135:
136: ### Note
137:
138: Please be aware that, as of August 2012, sysupgrade is a farily new tool and is
139: still undergoing field testing. Use with care. In particular, upgrades across
140: major binary releases might not work properly yet because of the lack of a
141: reboot between the kernel installation and the unpacking of the sets. That said,
142: you may find this tool very convenient to track NetBSD-current or stable NetBSD
143: branches.
144:
145: One of the benefits of sysupgrade is that it is an integrated and
146: almost-unattended solution: the tool fetches the new kernel and distribution
147: sets from remote sites if you desire and performs the upgrade without user
148: intervention until new changes to the configuration files need to be merged.
149:
150: Let's assume you are running NetBSD/amd64 6.0 and you wish to upgrade to NetBSD
151: 6.1. The procedure to do so would be to run the following command:
152:
153: # sysupgrade auto ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-6.1/amd64
154:
155:
156: And that's all that it takes. This will proceed to download the kernel and
157: sets appropriate for your machine, unpack them and assist you in merging new
158: configuration changes. Do not forget to reboot afterwards.
159:
160: For more details, please see the included sysupgrade(8) manual page and the
161: `/usr/pkg/etc/sysupgrade.conf` configuration file.
162: